Dan Hruschka: Arizona State University Replicating a study among our fellow humans requires a researcher to interact with study participants according to protocols that are comparable with previous studies. However, thanks to humanity’s rich capacity for cultural learning, it can be challenging to identify what counts as a “comparable protocol” across different human groups. Specifically, […]
Raziel Davison: University of California, Santa Barbara We investigate human life history evolution by comparing smallscale subsistence societies and chimpanzees to identify the roles that fertility and mortality play in driving population-level fitness differences. We discuss differences in the selection pressures facing individuals of different ages and to make inferences about the trajectory of human […]
Ashley Hazel: Stanford UniversityPopulations that are dependent upon physical environments for their immediate livelihoods utilize subsistence strategies that are both well adapted to predictable environmental variability (e.g., seasonality) and resilient to unpredictable shocks (e.g., drought). Livelihood strategies that entail high degrees of mobility typically have temporal and spatial heterogeneities in social contact, which influences infection […]
Alexandra Binder: University of California, Los AngelesThere is extensive epidemiologic and experimental evidence linking early life conditions to adult health. Epigenetic modifications are suspected to play a role in mediating these associations by providing a cellular memory of gene regulation shaped by exposures during critical windows of development. In this lecture, I will discuss some […]
Pam Yeh: University of California, Los AngelesAll natural populations deal with multiple stressors. Yet there is limited understanding of how populations are impacted by higher-order interactions — more than two stressors. In this talk I will explain my new conceptual and experimental work to examine higher-order interactions among antibiotics in bacterial populations. I will also […]
Hazel Byrne: University of California, Los AngelesNeotropical primates are a diverse clade of primates that inhabit South and Central America. Broadly speaking, in comparison to "Old World" primates originating in Africa and Asia, most Neotropical primates are strikingly understudied with many outstanding questions regarding their evolution. Among the least studied and appreciated groups are the […]
Katie Starkweather: University of New MexicoGendered divisions of labor are an essential aspect of human life. The two primary components of the gendered division of labor – subsistence work and childcare – are critical for child survival, health, and well-being, as well as the reproductive success of parents. In most human societies, women and men […]
Lee Gettler: University of Notre DameHuman males have a flexible psychobiological capacity to respond to committed parenting with shifts in hormones such as testosterone, prolactin, and oxytocin. These findings hint at evolved neuroendocrine capacities that help facilitate refocused priorities as men make the transition into fatherhood. Evolutionarily, these capacities likely emerged alongside humans’ “slow” life […]
Brian Wood: University of California, Los AngelesHumans think about, explore, and use landscapes like no other species, reflecting our unique biological and cultural adaptations. One of these adaptations, observed in all hunter-gatherer societies, is a gendered division of foraging labor. The impacts that gendered economic roles have upon space use is a critical concern for […]
James Liu: Massey University, New ZealandWhat is universal, what is characteristic of national political culture, and what is regionally influenced in the “living memory” of national history for people around the world? Selected data a reported from a massive multi-generational adult sample (N>27000) collected online in 2018-19, representative of 42 societies around the world). In […]
